


Some Battles Keep Going

by nightwingingit



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Canon Universe, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-26 01:08:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15652674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightwingingit/pseuds/nightwingingit
Summary: “You’re a character.  I’ve never seen you hit Joker that hard.  And you hate him.” Jason says, a self deprecating yet seemingly mocking smile on his lips.He’s unsure if he’s laughing at Bruce or himself though.Damn that kick hurt.  It hurt like a mother fricker.Bruce had shattered his mask, SHATTERED it.---Thoughts during and after Jason shoots Penguin and Bruce comes after him.





	1. Chapter 1

RHATO Rebirth #25

\---

 

 

Jason:

 

“You’re a character.  I’ve never seen you hit Joker that hard.  And you hate him.” Jason says, a self deprecating yet seemingly mocking smile on his lips.

 

He’s unsure if he’s laughing at Bruce or himself though.

 

Damn that kick hurt.  It hurt like a mother fricker.

 

Bruce had shattered his mask, SHATTERED it.

 

He really wasn’t holding his punches.  In fact it seemed to be the exact opposite.

 

It was like he wanted to hurt Jason more.

 

Like he had some authority to hurt him more.

 

He’s not surprised.  Really this whole thing was hilarious.

 

The thing is… what was he thinking in the first place?

 

Why did he think he could come back?

 

After all the things he did?

 

After everything that had happened?

 

Bruce would never look at him like before.

 

Before the pit.

 

Before the bloodshed.

 

Before the murders.

 

Before all of it.

 

He would never get his redemption.

 

And he was so stupid for even trying.

 

Because he’d just fucked it up again and now this was it.

 

Bruce would never forgive.  

 

Not this time.

 

What ‘family’ did he want?

 

What did he even WANT?

 

‘Love’?

 

Even just that thought makes Jason scoff at himself.

 

He was a dumbass.  

 

Jason saw the way Bruce had moved on, with Tim by his side, healed.  Jason was the one who ripped open his wounds and continued to hurt him more and more just by his mere presence, just by existing again.

 

Jason saw the way Bruce abandoned him for Dick when Bludhaven had that nuclear attack.  Bruce couldn’t leave him fast enough. No one could ever replace the golden boy, especially not him.  He wasn’t good enough, not even from the start.

 

Jason saw the way Bruce mourned Damian, remembered how Bruce purposefully lied to him and brought him to the place of his death just because he wanted Damian back, not because he loved him, or cared about him and his pain, but because he missed his youngest son.

 

Jason saw how he let Batwoman go after killing without even a scratch.

 

But him.  

 

No.  

 

These punches, only serve to prove his thoughts right.

 

Bruce didn’t love him.  He wasn’t part of the family.  He was only seen as a ticking time bomb, tentatively allowed into their midst, always watched, always unwelcome, less than dirt.

 

Even when he had tried, it was never enough.

 

And now he sees.

 

He would NEVER be enough.

 

He was always, and will always be, an outsider.

 

There was no trial, no one to stand up for him, no family here for him.

 

\---

 

 

Bruce:

 

“No more jokes, Jason.  No more excuses. No more Red Hood!”

Why couldn’t he get it through his thick head?  

Killing was not what this family does.

Killing was never and will never be the answer!

Jason should KNOW better.

He DOES know better but he chose to kill the Penguin anyways.

This wasn’t ignorance it was purposeful.  

It was bloodthirsty and it has to STOP.

Bruce had given him a chance.

Hell, MULTIPLE chances, and this is what he gets?

Another dead at Red Hoods hands, the hands he let roam free meaning it was also blood on HIS hands.

He let this happen.

Well not anymore.

This has gone too far.

He should have never made the deal with Jason.

It was always too much of a risk and now a man is dead for it.

Just because he’d wanted to trust Jason.

And why had he trusted him?

Because he had a soft spot for him?  Because of his feelings of guilt for an old partner?  Because for once he was being idealistic and wanted to trust him?

Look where that trust has gotten him.  

Bruce can feel the blood from the Penguin on his own hands.

It’s suffocating.

And Jason still has the gall to smile.  The gal to joke around, as if all of this was no big deal.

A man is dead and he’s JOKING?!

This is not okay.  

Letting Jason run around unsupervised was not okay.  

Not if lives were in danger because he was free.

Every life mattered.  Even the life of the dirtiest scum of the Earth.

And he had the responsibility to protect all of those lives.  

Even if it meant taking Jason down.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is my perspective on everything that happened. I wasn't going to post this one but decided to anyways since I wrote it already.

 

“Jason, if you ever leave -- It’ll be your choice -- not mine.”

 

It's not fair.

 

It never was, not for Jason.

 

What CHOICE?

 

Was it his choice to be born in the slums of Gotham?

 

Was it his choice to be the son of a thug and a drug addict?

 

Was it his choice to be killed that night?

 

Was it his choice to come back?

 

All of his life, was he ever really given any CHOICES?

 

And then there’s the double standard isn’t there?

 

Jason, he’s seen as the unstable one.  Bruce can’t trust that.

 

Bruce never really trusts him, just uses him.

 

But that’s not true either.

 

Bruce wants him in the family too but he’s afraid to push too hard, especially when it comes to Jason.

 

And Jason has always misunderstood and thought he was being rejected.

 

So neither of them pushed each other too hard.  Because they both wanted this thing they called a family to WORK somehow.

 

But it always comes back to this doesn’t it?

 

Jason puts a person down that Bruce doesn’t approve of and the flames reignite and explodes between them.

 

And Jason thinks he deserves it.

 

He knew what he was doing when he shot Penguin, killing in Bruce’s territory, right in front of national TV, as if mocking him.

 

He knew Bruce would come for him.

 

And he lets him knock him down.

 

Because he thinks he’s done everything wrong.  Maybe he doesn’t feel guilty about the killing but he knows he broke Bruce’s rules and with his friends disappeared to god knows where without him… he deserves some sort of punishment and he’s all too happy to feel the very real pain of a kick to the face.

 

Let him FEEL something other than this sadness that’s tearing him up on the inside.

 

Bruce is all too happy to indulge because of his own self hatred, at letting Jason kill people.

 

The hypocrite.

 

He’s blinded by the disrespect, the betrayal, the loss of a life…

 

When Dick had killed the Joker, when he didn’t save Blockbuster, he’d felt so guilty afterwards it had been debilitating for him.  Bruce had scolded but that was all.

 

When Tim had felt guilty for believing he’d gotten someone killed Bruce didn’t blink an eye.  When Tim was being taught by a killer Bruce even decided he had wanted to be taught by her too.

 

When Damian came about Bruce had been cautious but he’d accepted him though he’d killed so many, and had even killed people in his presence.

 

And then of course the most recent event when he’d put Kate on trial for killing. 

 

She got a trial.

 

But again.

 

Life was never fair for Jason.

 

Jason got a kick in the face.

 

But Bruce will calm down eventually.

 

And Jason will forgive him eventually.

 

None of this is over by a long shot.


End file.
